Suspected Boko Haram members on Saturday released a video three of the four members of staff the University of Maiduguri who were kidnapped earlier in he week.
The team included the university staff and employees from an oil firm, while searching for oil in the northeast on Tuesday.
In the video, the men are seen seemingly unharmed and sitting crosslegged on a red floor in front of a patterned wall.
One of the men, who identified himself as Soloman Yusuf, said he was a lecturer at the university and called on the federal government to meet the kidnapper’s demands, without the use of “excessive force”.
A rescue attempt on Wednesday resulted in the deaths of at least 37 members of the original prospecting team and the rescuers, including Nigerian military and armed vigilantes.
The abducted group was traveling in a convoy of eight Hilux vans under the protection of Nigerian troops.
All the vehicles were snatched by the militants. Some of the soldiers in the convoy were killed while others escaped to a nearby village.
The abducted UNIMAID staff include Dr. J.V Militus, Dr. N.Y Solomon, Manaja N Uba, Yusuf Ibrahim, Alhaji Kolo, Daniel Birma and a technologist from the Department of Soil Sciences whose name was simply given as Mohammed.
May them be rescue soonest